Boris’s all-male housing task force criticised

Green Party Assembly Member Jenny JonesBoris Johnson has come under fire from London Assembly Member Jenny Jones for failing to appoint any women to a new “task force of experts” investigating how to tackle the capital’s housing shortage.

Earlier this week the Mayor announced the creation of the new 13-strong group which is to be chaired by Sir Peter Rogers, Chief Executive of the London Development Agency, and includes housing professionals and representatives of Rothschilds and Barclays.

Ms Jones, who represents the Green Party on the Assembly, says the appointment of an all-male group shows that “in Boris Johnson’s judgement, not one woman in London is worthy or competent” to be included.

The Assembly Member made similar criticisms in August 2009 when the Mayor announced an entirely male list of appointments to the London Skills and Employment Board.

Jones claimed in appointing a male-only group to tackle the housing shortage, the Mayor “has overlooked at least 23 women who attend his several other housing forums, including the London heads of Shelter and the National Housing Federation.”

She also raised concerns that the appointees “lack experience of community-led and self-help projects, which will provide many small solutions in an age of savage housing cuts.”